Divine Bloodlines 8 Bit Remix - Castlevania: Dracula X/Rondo of Blood
35holy mother of balls am i tired this fine morning. ill try to make this description not terribly boring and dry.
castlevania is probably my favorite konami series. i'm almost certian that ive sunk more time in to playing a bunch of the games in this series when compared to time spent playing mgs or contra or bomberman or whatever the fuck. im one of those guys who thinks that castlevania was done best with the level structure formula and that metroid-vanias (i fucking hate that term) aren't so much castlevania games as much as they are their own thing seperate from the original games. if i had to rank my favorite original castlevania games from pre-sotn it would go something like:
scv4 ANGLED BRACKETS AREN'T ALLOWED WHAT THE FUCK? rondo/drac x ANGLED BRACKET cv3 ANGLED BRACKET cv1 ANGLED BRACKET cv2
there was also that one, port? i guess? of castlevania 1 to arcades but for the life of me i cannot remember what it is called. i like that one a lot, when i used to go to conventions they'd always have that machine there. i actually might load up bloodlines tonight because i have never played bloodlines despite it looking like a game i'd enjoy a lot. i also haven't played the gameboy games. the only "metroid-vania" that i actually like enough that i'd play it again is aria of sorrow - i love that game. i think, generally, cv has been one of the better handled series by konami. they haven't really had to deal with all of the shit that mgs had to go through and they didn't turn it in to a moeshit game like they did with bomberman (i dont really care though, bomberman was never ever fun and that is a hill i am willing to die on.) it seems as if nowadays the main source of castlevania media releasing for the common man is the television series. haven't watched it yet, probably won't watch it either mostly because i just don't like watching television. ive been aware that the next cv show is going to be a loose adaptation of richter's story (possibly stories if they decide to follow it up with an sotn adaptation) and yeah thats pretty cool but i probably still won't watch it considering i can just play the games on emulators whenever. i really do love castlevania, though, but if you know how i work at all that would be obvious, eh? big muscle men using cool weapons and the power of christ to beat the shit out of well-designed horror monsters? yes fucking please. in terms of style no game comes close to castlevania's depictions of cool horror trope inspired enviornments, and especially with the snes games, the baked in lighting effects in levels is consistently so fucking good. like seriously, play dracula x on a crt and immediately you'll be blasted by cool fire effects on the first god damn level. don't use crt filters unless you want to but im of the view that those are never ever good no matter how you configure 'em. emulation will always be kinda fucky but it's easily the most accessible way to play retro vidja in modern time without blowing absurd amounts of money on hardware and games.
t. someone who has blown absurd amounts of money on hardware and games and still uses emulation more often than physical.
i will never stop being surprised at the amount of people that either don't know how to use emulators or don't want to because of muh evil piracy. like yeah, it's piracy, but there are a few things that should very well be taken in to consideration.
1. most games people emulate have been long out of production for at least 20 years and cannot be bought without going to second-hand markets like ebay, so if one is so worried about wanting to give their money to a billion dollar company, going and buying games second hand is, in the end, no more or less supportive to the company than just going to vimm and getting the rom.
and 2. is dumping games that one owns for the sake of emulation on pc or whatever you choose still piracy, because some people seem to think yes. now, don't get it twisted, nobody, and i mean NOBODY actually dumps their own games for personal use. the equipment is pricy and hard to come by, and generally is a really awkward task to carry out. the only people who consistently dump are archivists and people who upload to rom sites. THATS THE TRUTH, MAN. anyone who publically states to dump their own games is either a liar trying to cover their ass or for some reason do it because it makes them feel better about their emulator use.
gonna go have some food, now.
have a wonderful day, gentlemen.